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Warriors parade BART's second highest ridership day
Tens of thousands of people chose BART as their way to travel to and from Friday's Golden State Warriors victory parade and, thanks to our riders, it all went as smoothly as a Steph Curry shot sailing through the net. The final figures are in and they show 548,078 riders used BART June 19, 2015, good enough
BART and unions resolve remaining labor contract issue
BART General Manager Grace Crunican announced that all contract issues have been settled between BART and its two largest labor Unions. She will recommend the ratification of a final collective bargaining agreement with SEIU Local 1021 and ATU Local 1555 to the BART Board of Directors. A Special Meeting of
BART to run longer trains for busy sports Sunday
Trains will also be added to carry more passengers as pro games scheduled on both sides of the Bay BART will run longer trains Sunday, August 20th as sports fans flock to pro games on both sides of the Bay. The Giants host the Dodgers in a 1:00 p.m. game at AT&T Park in San Francisco while the Raiders host
BART seeks new members for Business Advisory Council
BART is seeking new members to serve on its Business Advisory Council for the 2019 to 2021 term. The Business Advisory Council, or BAC, was established in 2010 to encourage communications between BART and the small business community and to advise BART on efforts to ensure that small businesses are afforded
BART provided $251.6 million in federal emergency funds
Today the Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved providing BART with $251.6 million in federal CARES Act FTA funding. The allocation is the first installment of the $1.3 billion in funding provided to Bay Area transit operators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. BART is currently serving 6% of its
BART recruits electronic techs; info session Feb 9
BART is currently hiring for Transit Vehicle Electronic Technicians (TVET), part of a rewarding career that will help keep our system safe and reliable. BART is hosting an informational session on Tuesday, February 9, 2016, to help recruit for this position, which blends technical knowledge and
BART schedule change begins March 22, 2021
BART will make some minor adjustments to its schedule effective March 22, 2021. While service hours will remain unchanged for now, BART staff will closely monitor ridership and demand as the region begins to reopen. The new schedule starting on March 22nd is now available on our Trip Planner and on the BART
BART Board of Directors approves two-year budget
On June 8th, the BART Board of Directors approved a two-year budget that addresses the agency’s highly uncertain, challenging financial outlook. Although the budget is balanced for FY24, which begins July 1st, a $93 million deficit looms for FY25. “Despite our best efforts to hold the line on expenses and
On Valentine’s Day, BART to host first-ever speed dating/friend making event on a moving BART train
This Valentine’s Day, hop on the Valentraine and ride your way to love or friendship.
On the evening of Friday, Feb. 14, BART invites adults ages 18 to 35 to join us for an on-the-rails mixer aboard a moving BART train. Ride BART into someone’s heart on a special train reserved just for this event!
It’s time to get off the apps and get on Trainder. This is speed dating – literally.
We’ll help grease the wheels with icebreaker activities, conversation starters, a raffle, and BART-themed Valentines that you can give to potential connections.
Adults of all sexual orientations are welcome as are those looking to make friends rather than find romance. We will have name tags with a space to write in what you are looking for. Participants must be ages 18 to 35 (we’ll explore hosting a similar event for those 35+ in the future).
What: BART speed dating/friend making
When: Friday, Feb. 14, 6:30pm to approx. 8:35pm
Where: Start at Downtown Berkeley Station and ride to 24th St./Mission before returning to Downtown Berkeley. The train will not stop for the duration of the ride.
Who: Adults ages 18 to 35 of all sexual orientations looking for love and/or friendship
RSVP Required: bartspeeddating.eventbrite.com
RSVPing via the Evenbrite link above is a requirement for participation, and registration is limited. The e-ticket you receive from Eventbrite is NOT your BART fare. Every participant must have a Clipper card – make sure you have at least $7.10 (BART’s excursion fare) on your card.
Here’s how things will go:
- Arrive at Downtown Berkeley Station no later than 6:30pm for check-in. Late arrivals will not be allowed onboard. We will meet inside the station on the concourse level under the rotunda. Look for BART staff with signage.
- Depart Downtown Berkeley at 7:10pm.
- We’ll ride the Red Line to 24th St./Mission, where the train will turn around and head back to Downtown Berkeley. The train will not make stops for the duration of the ride.
- Arrive at Downtown Berkeley Station at approx. 8:35pm.
- If you plan to park and ride, we suggest parking in the lot at Ashby Station (one stop up the line) and ride BART to Downtown Berkeley. There are also multiple parking lots and limited street parking near the station.
There will be additional staff and safety presence on each train car. BART has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual and gender-based harassment, consuming alcoholic beverages and illicit substances, and engaging in disruptive/disturbing behavior in our trains and stations. Read the full Customer Code of Conduct here. Violators will be removed from the train and face potential disciplinary action.
BART is experimenting with hosting events on trains such as this speed dating/friend making mixer as a way to engage our community, spur connections, and encourage riding BART. We’ve heard so many stories of people meeting partners and friends onboard, as well as those who’ve taken a train to get married. We hope this event will generate even more stories! Find links to a selection of these articles below.
Read the couples' stories:
A transit wedding happened naturally for these newlyweds
Former BART attorney met the love of her life on San Francisco-bound train
Couple who met on BART tie the knot with whimsical BART-themed wedding at Fairyland
"Good vibes on the train": BART employee takes BART to wedding ceremony at San Francisco City Hall
“BART Guy” and “BART Girl” finds love on an empty Embarcadero platform
BART Connects: Why Eric’s students at the Orientation Center for the Blind ‘fall in love’ with BART when they come to the Bay
Eric Mazariego navigates El Cerrito Plaza Station.
BART is developing detailed descriptions of station tactile guideways, a navigation system for riders who are blind and low vision that leads to bus bays, fare gates, and platform stairs. Find the descriptions here and read the story of their development here.
Eric Mazariegos has been taking BART “forever.”
His earliest BART memory is riding trains to eye doctor appointments in San Francisco with his mom. He was eight years old when he started losing his vision, and it took doctors two years to figure out what was happening. That meant lots of appointments – and lots of BART.
Those long BART rides from his home in Concord to San Francisco and back turned out to be a useful educational tool as his vision loss continued.
“I rode it so much as a kid, I’d memorized a lot of the stations,” he said. “I had a head start [for navigating the system without vision].”
Later in life, he began taking BART regularly, first to get to class at San Francisco State, then a job in Fremont, and now to his current workplace, the Orientation Center for the Blind (OCB).
“It’s my primary mode of transportation,” he said. Rideshares fill in the blanks when necessary (though BART is always his first choice).
Eric uses his white cane to follow the tactile guideway at El Cerrito Plaza.
When Eric navigates a BART station, he is listening to the sounds around him and translating the tactile clues from his white cane to the spatial map in his mind.
Every BART station has a unique soundscape and tactile geography that allows Eric to make his way through a station and onto a BART train.
“I listen for the turnstile, so I know where to enter. I feel for the carpets near the escalators – a clue that I’m almost there. I hear my cane on the metal landing platform. Then I ascend to the platform,” Eric said, describing some of the cues he uses to navigate a station without vision. When he reaches the platform, there are other guide tools – bumpy tactile guideways that signal you are nearing the trackway, speakers announcing the approach of trains.
Part of Eric’s job is to support people like him -- people who are blind or low vision -- in learning to move around their cities and regions.
Eric serves as the Administrator of OCB, a 60-year-old residential training program run by the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) that provides free on-site training to job seekers who are visually impaired and blind. Said Eric: “The mission of the DOR is everyone who wants to work can work.”
Eric started at OCB as a dorm counselor in 1999. Twenty-five years later, he’s overseeing the organization’s entire staff of 35. To get to OCB from his home in Concord, Eric takes BART, twice a day, five days a week. Without it, his travel options would be extremely limited.
Eric stands on a BART train.
The OCB campus is about a half mile from El Cerrito Plaza Station. Every day of the week, you’ll see OCB participants on campus going to and from classes, which include courses such as Daily Living Skills, Cooking, Braille, Adaptive Technology training, and independent travel. Some students are new to blindness. Some come from outside of the Bay Area. Many live on campus through the duration of their training course.
“I’d have to find a job closer to my house,” he said. “BART opens up the possibilities to work wherever you want, and your job is a huge part of your life. A lot of people take that for granted.”
There’s a learning curve for OCB students ready to set out on their own via public transportation. First, they must learn white cane skills so they can detect obstacles and pathways and safely orient themselves in spaces they haven’t experienced before.
Teachers provide hands-on guidance and “BART field trips” to show students how to confidently navigate the system, and they have tactile maps of some stations so they can get a sense of their layouts. Many students want to go out and learn by experiencing it for themselves.
“When students advance to the point of being able to use BART, they love it. It’s so freeing because it takes you everywhere, runs frequently, and is dependable,” Eric said. “A lot of our students come from Southern California, and they’re not used to having great transit. Many don’t like going back home because they fall in love with our transportation system.”
Eric enters Downtown Berkeley Station's platform via the stairs.
About BART Connects
The BART Connects storytelling series was launched in 2023 to showcase the real people who ride and rely on BART and illustrate the manifold ways the system affects their lives. The subjects of BART Connects will be featured in videos as well as a forthcoming marketing campaign that is slated to run across the Bay Area. Find all the stories at bart.gov/bartconnects.
The series grew out of BART's Role in the Region Study, which demonstrates BART’s importance to the Bay Area’s mobility, cultural diversity, environmental and economic sustainability. We conducted a call for stories to hear from our riders and understand what BART means to them. More than 300 riders responded, and a selection of respondents were interviewed for the BART Connects series.